Hair Shanks Tobbyguppy

The work became huge
extending out from the wall
where it began
as if entirely decorative
like a cross-hatching of small cuts
on the back of my hand

a life lived
as if purely decorative
like a cross-hatching of small scars
on the back of my hand

The wall had few features
concrete block
a water main went up it
the side of a warehouse
and few passed directly below it
but it was visible from the main road

for this reason some not very
imaginative graffiti
had come to be painted on it
and for this reason
I slowed down

I began by placing a metal grill
on top of the graffiti
that showed individual letters
through its squares

Better.
And then a curved pipe
branched out from the water main,
hanging off it further arabesques
of found material

Better yet.
The graffiti began to disappear
under layers of objects,
wire, wires, pipe, wooden things,
metal things, dead things,
like the branch of a tree
leafless twigs
bleached by the sun
left on the footpath.